In a mobile network, mutual discovery among user equipments (UE) is a prerequisite for direct communication between UEs that are relatively close to each other.
Existing mutual discovery among UEs is usually implemented by using a monitoring procedure. Before monitoring other UE (referred to as monitored UE below), monitoring UE needs to first send a monitoring request to a proximity service function entity. The proximity service function entity forwards the monitoring request to an application server, and then the application server determines whether the monitored UE enables a discovery function (may also be referred to as a broadcast function). If the monitored UE enables the discovery function, the application server sends information about the monitored UE to the proximity service function entity. The proximity service function entity sends, to the monitoring UE, proximity service application code used by the monitored UE for broadcasting, so that the monitoring UE can use the proximity service application code to start to monitor the monitored UE.
In a process of implementing the present disclosure, the inventor finds that the related technology has at least the following problems:
If monitoring UE wants to discover monitored UE, the monitored UE needs to actively enable a discovery function (that is, active broadcasting). If the monitored UE does not enable the discovery function, the monitoring UE cannot discover the monitored UE.